A dual-clutch gearbox uses two clutches so the car can switch gears very quickly. It can feel like a manual because you can choose gears yourself, but the shifting is still handled by the transmission.
Person
Neil Cliford
Neil Cliford is the person the host brings into the conversation to answer a question. He’s part of the discussion about Ferrari’s manual/gearbox choices.
Le Mans is one of the most famous endurance races in the world, held in France. Mentioning it usually signals racing experience or credibility.
Person
Galeria
They mention someone named “Galeria” as the person who previously said Ferrari wouldn’t build manual gearboxes. The point is that Ferrari seems to have reversed that position.
A manual gearbox is the kind where you choose the gears yourself, usually using a clutch. The speaker is saying that if you want that exact driving feel, you may have to look at used cars.
This is a super-quick Porsche 911 variant built for the track. The hosts mention it as a dramatic example of something you’d be racing at very high speed.
The Ford Falcon is an older car model made by Ford. In this podcast moment, it’s likely being mentioned as a familiar, classic name, not because it’s connected to the “Millennium Falcon” story. The comparison is probably just for humor.
Term
forward gears
“Forward gears” refers to the number of selectable gear ratios used for driving ahead (as opposed to reverse). More forward gears can help keep the engine in its ideal operating range more often, though it depends heavily on gearing strategy and transmission type.
Here, “overwrite” means the car can override what you’re doing with the gearbox. So even if it feels manual, the car may still step in with its own automatic logic.
Rev matching means you “blip” the engine a bit so the RPMs line up with the gear you’re going into. It makes downshifting smoother and prevents the car from jerking.
A hybrid uses a gas engine plus an electric motor. In this case, the speaker is saying that having no hybrid system makes the manual feature simpler to design and control.
The Ferrari 599 is a V12 Ferrari grand tourer. In this segment, the speaker says the manual versions are rare and expensive, and he doesn’t like how they drive.
The Ferrari 575 is a V12 front-mid-engine Ferrari from the mid-2000s, typically associated with the brand’s classic gated manual feel in some configurations. Here, the speaker says a “575 manual” isn’t very nice, contrasting it with other Ferrari manuals he prefers.
The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size luxury car made by BMW. It’s usually chosen for a balance of comfort and performance. The podcast mention of specific numbers (like “550”) is pointing to particular engine versions within the 5 Series.
The gear gate is the part of the shifter mechanism that “routes” you into the right gear positions. It’s like a guide that makes it harder to accidentally grab the wrong gear.
The shifter is the lever you move to choose gears. Here, they’re talking about the specific mechanism Ferrari designed and patented.
Car
Koenigseggs
Koenigsegg is a supercar brand famous for unusual, high-tech engineering. Here, they’re being used as a comparison point for a similar idea about how shifting can work.
DCT means dual-clutch transmission. It uses two clutches so the car can have the next gear ready, which makes shifting quicker and smoother than a normal manual.
A V12 is an engine with 12 cylinders arranged in two rows. It’s famous for smooth running and a special sound, and it’s not common anymore.
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Okay.
Here you...
I'm sorry.
Not up.
Fucking up.
Shut up.
Fucking unbelievable.
Okay, here we go.
Right.
Here you, here you.
Important news from the world of the motor car.
Ferrari has only gone and put a manual in VertiCom as gear change into a road car.
Something I think they said they weren't going to do again.
I can't find the exact quotation, but I think they did go on the record and say they weren't
going to make a manual again.
And actually, if you drill into the data of the new Dodici Cylindri Manoale, you'll find
out it actually has a dual clutch gearbox, but with a manual operation now available.
First of all, the question goes to Neil Cliford.
I think sitting holding a red telephone, it's an Arnaj in Le Mans.
Do you count this as a manual gearbox?
Well, I don't know why they made a stylish one.
Oh, look at that.
It's a very loud 996.
Just go past.
I do.
I've quickly seen a bit of the information.
It's clear why they fired what's his name?
Galeria.
Galeria.
Galeria.
Because he's the guy that said, we will not make manual gearboxes.
If you want a manual gearbox, you go and buy a second hand one.
He said that last year.
So the writing was on the wall, maybe, for him.
Or maybe he's took the luce drama.
This is a lovely antidote for luce, isn't it?
I think it's brilliant.
I know it's not really, really, really, really manual, but it's like 80% manual.
Mr. Harris, I'm sure you can explain because you're the only guy that's read the press
please.
But I think it's good news.
We have to celebrate good news.
12 cylinder, mainly manual.
It's got a clutch pedal.
You can do 200 miles an hour in 6th and you can change up to 7th.
You want to do more than 200 miles.
I think it's great news and we should celebrate Ferrari for doing it.
Yeah, I agree.
What do you think, Manish?
Well, I did listen to your voice mail and I thought it actually had four manual gears.
And then you press a button and then it goes into 5th and 6th with the...
Oh, so you've got six working gears and then it will go into 7th if you press the button.
Yes.
Ah.
The hyperdrive button.
Yeah, so they wanted a gator with six slots in a reverse.
Yep.
And if you happen to find yourself in a dogfight with a particularly irascible 991 GT2 RS,
when you get to very high speed, you can press a button and go into automatic mode to get
that last 15 miles an hour.
Is that when Millennium Falcon is being chased by something and all the stars go...
Yeah, it's literally like that.
You get lines on the screen and you face...
So it is six forward gears then, Manish?
I'll talk about what I know about.
Lola famously has an automatic gearbox with four forward gears.
So, you know, I'm not one who's going to be sitting there, opining on kind of modern for eyes.
But it...
I don't know.
It does strike me very slightly as pizzas on a wall.
They've been criticised recently for the aesthetics of the modern cars.
And I'm not a fan of the aesthetics, the size of the modern cars.
And shortly after, they make a statement saying, we'll never do a manual car.
They do a manual car, but it's very slightly gimmicky because there's a DCT and an overwrite.
They fired the bloke that said that.
Yeah, Neil, that's not really a strategy because they kind of hired him.
He worked there for many years before.
He hadn't worked there for five minutes and suddenly came out with this line going,
well, we'll never do a manual car.
I think you'll find, given your corporate CEO experience,
that line may well have been vetted by a lot of Ferrari PR people.
I think there are a few.
So, I think they may have changed their position and actually dumped a guy doing it.
Who knows? I don't know.
Strikes me as a bit gimmicky.
How many cars are they making, Neil?
1,963, I'm told.
So, 1,963 people will benefit from this car.
Quite a lot.
Over the next five years.
It's a billion of turnover.
I wish I was clever enough to run a company where I could have one idea
and it gave me an extra billion of turnover.
Is it an extra billion of turnover?
So, how much more are they charging for the manual version than the non-manual version?
I don't know, Mr. Harris.
Well, no, your CEO says 1,963 cars.
No, it's 500 grand.
I know the numbers.
500 grand.
So, it's like selling 3,012-cylindries, but you only have to sell 2,000.
So, it's double genius.
Yeah, it's 509, 424 and 35 decimals.
Genius.
I think, I suppose...
Let's see what Chris Cooper had to say.
Can I just apply a little bit of...
I did listen to the thing.
So, is it a manual?
Question one.
Can I start off with the gear lever in the first gear slot on the gated thing?
Yes.
When I then proceed down Her Majesty's, His Majesty's Highway,
can I then pull it back into second using the clutch?
Yes.
And you are controlling the position of the clutch
when it comes in and out of that gear yourself?
Right.
Here's the question.
I'm now proceeding down near to the sort of domestic sort of rule speed limit.
Can I then put it straight into fourth gear?
Yes.
It's a manual.
Yeah, I think I agree with you.
I agree with you.
I would say it's a manual shift,
but I'm not sure you can call it a manual gearbox.
100%.
But I just love the idea.
Doesn't matter.
You can be stationary.
You then have to lift the clutch.
Yeah.
And you go, as it goes off.
Pull second.
You have to sort of rev match.
It's not done all...
You've got to rev, presumably.
It's not all done completely.
It's a second to fourth.
It's a manual.
I think...
For me, it's a manual.
There's a couple of things to add to this.
I had a lovely phone call with Raphael and Dysimone earlier
so they could just explain it a bit.
And he just...
There's a couple of quirks.
They didn't want to have a button to activate the manual.
If you're in auto mode,
if you go below 80 kmph, I think it is, 80,
and you just push the clutch pedal,
you become a manual.
I think it's a really cool way of activating it.
And if you're the other way around,
you can switch into auto at any moment,
but you need to come back below a certain speed
to engage the manual.
The chassis is exactly the same.
They chose the 12C for obvious reasons
because it's got no hybrid,
so it made it much easier
in terms of engine mapping and everything.
It's a...
For me,
it's a bit of a method for the car industry this.
We would not have thought this was going to happen
when we started this podcast.
We are beginning to see a kind of a...
We are beginning to see a car industry
that's allowed or allowing itself to make cars
that people want.
Yeah.
That's very important.
Over to Chris.
Our producer has just nudged me
because he's asked a great question.
He's obviously watching when I drive a manual.
Can you stall it?
You can stall the car.
That was confirmed to me by Rafa
that you can stall the car.
You can also block change.
So you can do a 2 to 4, a 4 to 6,
so it's clever.
It's really clever.
I mean, I really like...
I mean, I can't afford it.
I love the idea it exists,
and I love the idea you'll see somebody
stalling it and have to fire it up again and carry on.
Yeah.
It was also interesting because they mentioned the fact
they'd looked at the back catalogue of Ferrari manuals,
and Rafa was quite proud of the fact.
He said,
well, I actually worked on the manual gearbox cars
all those years ago,
and I felt like saying,
the last good one I drove was probably the 430
because the few 599s they made
are worth a zillion pounds.
If you drive one, that's shit.
And actually, a 575 manual isn't very nice.
They're not...
The 550s is good,
and a 456 is nice,
but as they sort of forgot about them over time,
they weren't neglected.
They weren't very good.
So I think this will be much better to drive.
What's going to happen is all the car magazines will roll out
the manual Ferrari group test now, won't they?
And I think they'll find this might be much nicer
than all the old ones.
Have they patented anything?
Like a gazillion patents, or is it just actually open source?
Yeah, I'm sure they have.
I know they have patented the gear gate
and the actual shifter.
That was mentioned in the conversation.
Right.
I mean, it is quite close to the Koenigsegg solution
because the Koenigseggs had something like this for a while,
but they don't use dual clutch gearboxes.
So the trick here is they're allowing you to...
It's quite a comp.
You've got...
Obviously, you've pre-selected a gear in the DCT as well,
but you're...
So it is very clever.
Let's have some final thoughts from the interview.
No, Clifford, you're sitting at Arnaj.
You've had a good day watching the racing, not a cloud in the sky.
I've been watching you.
I've been watching you and Philip and Dario all going round.
It's very lovely, easy and fruit.
I think this is the tipping point.
Come on, Lamborghini, come on, Aston Martin, come on, everyone.
I think we want manuals, even men whales.
So I think this is the moment of change.
Manish?
Looks like a manual.
Sounds like a manual.
Who's going to take this apart and say it's not a manual?
It's a man whale.
I like it.
So Manish has just proclaimed that it's a duck.
Good.
Right, so Chris Cooper, what are your final thoughts?
Well, I've just come from Silverstone.
We're very, very lucky to be at Silverstone today.
Watching Lewis take the roof off the circuit
by getting whole for the sprint race tomorrow.
And a red Ferrari, his yellow helmet,
manual gearbox V12 Ferrari, what a day.
Yeah, good day for the scooter here.
I'll leave us with a question.
I don't often do this.
I don't know how many of you have questions,
but if Ferrari is making a manual gearbox,
where does that leave the values of the cars
that have become very, very high on the used market
because they are the rare manual versions?
Yeah, interesting.
Good, no.
Couldn't you check?
I think it's going to just put more and more love
into manuals.
Fantastic.
OK, right.
I'm going to have to love you,
and leave you my telephone's ringing for some reason.
I can't see what I'm doing here.
Hold on, there we go.
Thank you very much for tuning in.
That was the emergency podcast.
Hopefully we'll have more good emergency lives.
We love a good emergency, don't we?
It's a great thing.
Love you all.
Bye-bye.
Positive and emergency, bye.
Thank you.
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About this episode
Ferrari’s “manual comeback” sparks debate on whether a dual-clutch gearbox with manual operation really counts as a true manual. The hosts break down the new VertiCom/12-cylinder setup: a clutch pedal, gated feel, manual upshifts/downshifts (with some auto behavior at higher speeds), and even the ability to stall or block-change. They also discuss Ferrari’s prior stance against manuals, the limited run numbers, and how this could affect used values of rare older manual Ferraris—ending with a hopeful call for other brands to follow.
